Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices that are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, portable wireless telephones, such as cellular telephones and internet protocol (IP) telephones, can communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Further, many such wireless telephones include other types of devices that are incorporated therein. For example, a wireless telephone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Also, such wireless telephones can process executable instructions, including software applications, such as a web browser application, that can be used to access the Internet. As such, these wireless telephones can include significant computing capabilities.
Wireless communication networks enable communication devices to transmit and/or receive information while on the move. These wireless communication networks may be communicatively coupled to other public or private networks to enable the transfer of information to and from the mobile access terminal. Such communication networks typically include a plurality of access points (AP) which provide wireless communication links to access terminals (e.g., mobile communication devices, mobile phones, wireless user terminals). The access points may be stationary (e.g., fixed to the ground) or mobile (e.g., mounted on vehicles, satellites, etc.) and positioned to provide wide area of coverage as the access terminal moves within the coverage area.
Portable devices may be configured to communicate data via these wireless networks. For example, many devices are configured to operate according to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification that enables wireless exchange of data via an access point. In some communication systems, when a mobile access terminal attaches to a communication network through an access point, it performs network access authentication. Each time a mobile access terminal connects to a different access point, the authentication process may need to be repeated. However, repeating this authentication process can introduce significant setup delays.
Many communication devices are configured to perform a link setup both at an initial connection stage and one or more reconnection stages. Current systems assume pre-shared key to AP-IP address assignment after authentication to protect IP address assignments.
While utilization of multiple messages communicated among two or more message processing points in the system allows link setup, reducing the number of messages communicated while maintaining a required authentication level of the communication is highly desired.
Furthermore, a mobile communication device may scan for a nearby access point before link setup can be performed. This scanning may be “passive” or “active.” In “passive” scanning, the device may listen for access point activity (e.g., a control message). In “active” scanning, the device may broadcast a query and then wait for responses from nearby access points. Thus, “passive” scanning may be time consuming and “active” scanning may consume both time as well as power at the mobile communication device.